Speculators Help
Send Cotton Near
Three-Month High

By

Tom Sellen

Updated Dec. 23, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

NEW YORK -- While many areas of the U.S. may be without the white fluffy stuff over the holiday weekend, speculative and commodity-fund traders at the New York Board of Trade are getting increasingly bullish on their version -- cotton futures.

Nybot cotton for March delivery rose 0.41 cent to 55.78 cents a pound Friday in an abbreviated session before the Christmas-holiday weekend. It was the contract's highest settlement since Sept....